Jack Hale leads Australian athletes protesting Commonwealth Games team

Young sprint star Jack Hale leads a group of up to eight Australian athletes who have lodged protests over the team selected for the Commonwealth Games.

Veteran middle distance runner Jeff Riseley, who came fifth in both the 800m and 1500m at the last Commonwealth Games has also challenged his ommission from the team.

Hale has been picked for the sprint relay but missed out on the third discretionary pick for the 100m sprint. Josh Clarke was chosen ahead of him.

Jack Hale pulled up with a hamstring injury but thinks it's not too serious.Credit:AAP

Clarke came third in the final of the national titles behind Trae Williams and Rohan Browning. All three were selected to run the individual 100m sprint for the Gold Coast games.

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Hale pulled up sore in the final at the national titles, grabbing at his hamstring. He is awaiting the results of scans but believes the injury is not serious.

Little separates the pair but Clarke had beaten Hale twice in finals during the Commonwealth Games qualifying period.

Clarke ran a 10.22s last year but Hale had twice run 10.23s. In Perth he ran a 10.10s race with a +2.1 illegal tailwind - a tailwind of +2 is legal. Clarke's personal best is 10.15s from 2016.

“There are always athletes who always fall the wrong side of the line because the line has to be drawn somewhere,” chairman of selectors Dion Russell said on Sunday after the titles and before the selection committee met.

Riseley, who has been to the last three Olympics and five world championships, was understood to be surprised and disappointed at missing the third discretionary place in the 800m team.

Disappointed: Jeff Riseley.Credit:Daniel Pockett

Luke Mathews won the national title and has A qualifying times with Josh Ralph second, so they were both certain to be picked. Riseley came third in the final but missed out when selectors instead chose Joe Deng, who missed out on the A final after the heats but then ran the fastest time of the national titles in the consolation B final.

Russell admitted on Sunday that the debate over Deng or Riseley would be the most challenging for the selectors.

Deng was not in the fastest eight men in the heats to make it through to the A final but then ran the fastest time of anyone in the B final. So eight other men ran quicker than him when everything was on the line to make the final but he then ran a rapid A-qualifying 1:45.71 in the B final.

The organisers created the conundrum when they chose to stage a consolation B final in the mens and women's 800m - the only events at the titles to have a B final.

The Deng selection raises the question: why have an A final if times and not placings are all that matter? But then equally, if times do not matter, why have a B final at all if you ignore the results?

Athletes argue that an A final is about racing to win and not a time, whereas the B final has less pressure, is just a time trial and there are no race tactics or pressure.

“Joe Deng is a tricky one. That will be the crux of our discussion or the main one of our discussion,” Russell said.

“(Deng) has got an A and three Bs. He has the quickest time this weekend and we hear a lot of good stuff about him in terms of his potential.”

The Kenya-born Deng is 19 and his potential to be a medallist of the future was understood to be a significant factor in the decision.

In the women's 800m, selectors also pulled a surprise, choosing schoolgirl Keely Small. The teenager had run a 2:01.46 last year and in doing so became the world's fastest female aged under 18. However she came last in the final at the national titles in a time of 2:13.71.

Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on ‘Boots for Kids’. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victoria’s cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books - five sports books and two true crime books.